TIDES Training is committed to helping to build community infrastructure necessary to sustain a lasting and equitable peace by developing trust among individuals and groups in Northern Ireland. The organisation only works where they have been invited by a locally based group and always seek to ascertain if the phase of the conflict or post conflict setting is appropriate to the programme proposed.
A major part of the organisation's work is building cross-community programmes in areas that have directly experienced violence and ongoing tensions. These programmes implement effective local strategies working towards conflict reduction, meditative communication and community development.
The overall aim is to create strong community infrastructure that will sustain peace in areas where there has been violence, conflict or tension. Trust is built between people, facilitated by the training programmes.
Dialogue for Peaceful Change
Community leaders and advocates working for social change are on the front line of building and reconstructing society and will regularly deal with conflicts on all levels. Dialogue for Peaceful Change (DPC) seeks to provide the professional competencies needed by local leaders if they are to address these conflicts effectively and in a relevant and culturally appropriate way. It provides a methodology for managing conflict in the community.
DPC aims to facilitate regional training centres in this methodology across the world by training people who can then pass on the skills they have learnt. It will create a working group of those involved in working with minority communities and use their expertise to engage with cultural issues in Northern Ireland, as well as involving community groups in awareness workshops around ethnic minorities.
The aim of this programme is to provide community leaders and people who work in social change with the skills and competencies that enable them to handle conflict situations they encounter through their work.
Stepping into Diversity
This initiative seeks to create bridges where there is sectarian division, and in communities with little diversity. It understands the ability to value diversity as directly linked to peace building. It encourages local people from a range of ethnic backgrounds to engage in awareness building sessions around culture, race and immigration.
The initiative encourages local people to participate in weekly three-hour awareness raising sessions regarding different ethnic backgrounds, racism, and immigration. Individuals are encouraged to look at the patterns of emigration as well as an historical analysis of migration over the centuries. The groups are then invited to host a relevant three hour discussion between themselves and members from other ethnic backgrounds.
